"The shutdowns would affect 30,000 students, almost all in kindergarten
through eighth grade and most now attending poorly performing schools in
African-American neighborhoods on the South and West sides where
enrollment has sagged in recent years,” reported the Chicago Tribune

.As we reported last week, nearly 90 percent of the students in the closed schools will be Black. The proposed closings contrast to citywide data, where only 41.7 percent of CPS students are Black. "This is definitely a race and class issue," Wanda Hopkins, education
coordinator of the South Austin Coalition Community Council, told
EBONY. "We’re fighting this."

The neighborhoods affected most by the closings are escribed by the Chicago Sun-Times as among the city’s "poorest communities." These are also among the city’s “most violent neighborhoods” and hard-hit by gang violence, as reported last week at EBONY.com.

Chicago has become the epicenter
of national discourse over gun violence, though the sympathy and horror
alloted to victims of mass shootings in Aurora and Newtown evade the
city. Black youth have been hardest hit: "More young people are killed in Chicago than any other American city," notes the Chicago Reporter,
a local investigative journal. From 2008 to 2012, "more than 530 youth
[were] killed in Chicago with nearly 80 percent....on the city’s South
and West Sides."

20 March 2013

The New York Police Department officers who fatally shot 16-year-old Kimani Gray in Brooklyn on March 9 have been sued numerous times for civil rights violations from stop-and-frisk claims in recent years, reports the New York Daily News.

The NYPD sergeant and cop involved in the fatal shooting of Brooklyn 16-year-old Kimani Gray have been named in five federal lawsuits — which cost the city a total of $215,000 in settlements, court records show. Sgt. Mourad Mourad racked up three suits and Officer Jovaniel Cordova racked up two — all alleging various civil rights violations including illegal stop and search and false arrest. Prosecutors later dismissed all but one of the arrests against the six plaintiffs, and the criminal cases were sealed.

The allegations against Mourad include "pulling down" a suspect's underwear. Cordova has also been accused of "punch[ing]" a suspect in the face.

"Our clients’ interactions with Sgt. Mourad and Officer Cordova expose a disturbing pattern of unconstitutional and aggressive stop-and-frisk practices," attorney Brett Klein told the Daily News. "In each case, Mourad and Cordova attempted to cover up their misconduct by falsifying and fabricating evidence."

Kimani Gray's final words were a plea for help. "Please don’t let me die," another neighbor heard him say as he lay bleeding on the pavement. "One of the officers, she said, replied: 'Stay down, or we’ll shoot you again.'"

Kimani Gray's final words were a plea for help. "Please don’t let me die," another neighbor heard him say as he lay bleeding on the pavement. "One of the officers, she said, replied: 'Stay down, or we’ll shoot you again.'"

12 March 2013

Around 100 people took to the streets of East Flatbush, Brooklyn on Monday night to protest the death of 16-year-old Kimani Gray, who was shot and killed by two plain clothes New York City Police Department officers on Saturday March 9. Police officers claim the teen "adjusted his waistband in ... a 'suspicious manner'" and brandished a revolver before they fired 11 rounds and killed him.

Last night's demonstration began as a peaceful vigil but briefly turned violent "after a faction broke off from the group and began to smash car and store windows with rocks and jump on the tops of vehicles, police sources and witnesses said." reports the Daily News. However, there "were no reports of arrests or injuries."

There are conflicting reports as to what happened on Saturday evening. "An eyewitness told Pix11 that Gray was 'running for his life' when he was shot dead and never brandished a weapon," reports Colorlines.

As officers got out of the car to question him, Mr. Gray turned and pointed a .38-caliber Rohm revolver at them, the police said; two officers fired, hitting the teenager. He was pronounced dead a short time later at Kings County Hospital Center. "After the anti-crime sergeant and police officer told the suspect to show his hands, which was heard by witnesses, Gray produced a revolver and pointed it at the officers, who fired a total of 11 rounds, striking Gray several times," [NYPD spokesman Paul J. Browne] said.

Mr. Gray’s sister, Mahnefah Gray, 19, said that a witness to the shooting told her that her brother had been fixing his belt when he was shot. She, among others who knew Mr. Gray, said they had never known him to have a gun. Even if he had one on Saturday night, he would not have pointed it at police officers, Ms. Gray said. "He has common sense," she said.

A woman who lives across the street from the shooting scene said that after the shots were fired, she saw two men, whom she believed to be plainclothes officers, standing over Mr. Gray, who was prone on the sidewalk, clutching his stomach. "He said, ‘Please don’t let me die,’ ” said the woman, 46, who gave her name only as Vanessa. One of the officers, she said, replied: 'Stay down, or we’ll shoot you again.'"

The police maintain that Gray "did not fire the handgun. ... The six-shot revolver was loaded with four live rounds."

Twenty-two-year-old Clark Atlanta University student Amir Obafemi was arrested Saturday. Obafemi has been charged with felony aggravated assault and carrying a concealed weapon.

[Morehouse Police Chief Vernon Worthy]said the shooting stemmed from an argument outside after a pick-up basketball game at the gym. He said the shooter brandished a weapon, and the victim made it just inside the building before he was shot in the forearm. The victim, later identified as Cornileus Savage, was taken to Grady Hospital, and is conscious and alert, according to Atlanta police.

Around 130pm Saturday, the Atlanta Police Department said a Morehouse student’s iPhone was snatched from his hand and when he chased the robber several of the suspect’s “associates” attacked the student. "They roughed him up and then fled the scene," APD spokesman Gregory Lyon said. He said the student suffered cuts and bruises and was transported to the hospital.

The Morehouse shooting was the second high-profile shooting in Atlanta last week. "A 14-year-old was wounded on Thursday in a shooting outside a middle school and police said another student was arrested," reports Reuters.

The 143-year-old all-male Morehouse College is one of the nation's most prestigious
historically black colleges and
universities (HBCU). The college boasts famous alumni and "Morehouse
men" such as civil rights icons Dr. Martin Luther King Jr and Julian
Bond, filmmaker Spike Lee and actor Samuel L. Jackson.

Dr. John Silvanus Wilson is the new president of Morehouse. In January he spoke to National Public Radio about the challenges facing the historic college. Listen HERE.

One of the most poignant moments of Super Bowl XLVII was the opening sequence of Jennifer Hudson performing "America The Beautiful" with the Sandy Hook Elementary School Chorus.

Twenty children and six administrators were gunned down on December 14 at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The incident was the second deadliest school shooting in United States history after the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. Senseless, awful and tragic.

16 January 2013

President Barack Obama is prepared to announce the "most aggressive and expansive national gun-control agenda in generations", reports the Washington Post. The President's proposals will reportedly include banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, as well as "mandating background checks for all firearms buyers."

In addition to background checks and restrictions on military-style guns and ammunition magazines, Obama is expected to propose mental health and school safety initiatives such as more federal funding for police officers in schools, according to lawmakers and interest group leaders whom White House officials briefed on the plans. ...

Obama also is expected to present up to 19 executive actions that his administration will take, the lawmakers and advocates said. These steps include enhanced federal scientific research on gun violence and a modernized federal database system to track guns, criminals and the mentally ill. ..

Obama’s proposals amount to the most comprehensive federal regulations of the firearms industry since 1968, when President Lyndon B. Johnson acted in the aftermath of high-profile assassinations.

Banning high-capacity magazines would have an immediate impact. Similar high capacity ammunition clips were used in several recent high-profile shootings "whose victims have included a member of Congress in Arizona, moviegoers in Colorado and first graders in Connecticut," added the New York Times.

The White House proposal on gun control comes at the same time two of the nation's largest states are considering similar legislation.

The New York State Senate voted 43-18 last night to "expand the state’s ban on assault weapons and would include new measures to keep guns away from people with mental illnesses," added The Times. New York would become "the first state to act in response" to the horrific December 2012 mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school .

Meanwhile in Illinois: Legislators have introduced proposals that would severely restrict the "sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines."

08 January 2013

A 17-year-old self-described "white supremacist" has been accused of planning to use homemade explosives in a terrorist attack on Black students at an Alabama high school. Only one white student was targeted on the hit list ... and that was because he was believed to be gay.

Authorities believe that Derek Shrout was inspired by the horrific Connecticut school massacre to begin building homemade explosives, reports ABC News.

Shrout was arrested Friday after a teacher at Russell County High School found what appears to be the teen's journal and contacted authorities. Police said the journal contained plans to kill six students and one teacher with homemade grenades. Six of the seven individuals were black. In the journal, police say that Shrout thought the white male on his list was gay. "That's the reason the white male was on the list. It screams hate crime," Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor said.

Investigators say Shrout started writing in his journal just three days after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.

The journal was covered with "‘white power’, the F-word, and Nazi symbols,” a teacher told the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. A search of Shrout’s home found dozens of small cans "all with holes drilled and containing pellets."

Shrout faces one charge of attempted assault. He was released Monday afternoon on a $75,000 bond. Watch WTVM's report AFTER THE JUMP ...

31 December 2012

It's the last day of the year and my latest for EBONY wraps the year that was: "2012's Biggest News Stories." Obama, gun violence, LGBT rights, reproductive justice, HIV/AIDS ... It's not a comprehensive list—just a Top Ten—but the list should have something for everyone. Check out the amazing photo gallery created by the producers.

17 December 2012

"Words cannot match the depths of your sorrow. But whatever measure of comfort we can provide, we will provide," said President Barack last night at the memorial service for the victim's of Friday's horrific school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

By far, the most emotional moments of the President's 17-minute speech were at the end when he read the names of the 20 children who were gunned down. Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...